Our Research Centers

CERCF

Strengthening Cognitive Functions

Disorders of Memory & Behavior

Alterations in Brain Regulations

Grants and Research Office

Center for Enhancement and Restoration of Cognitive Function

Postdoctoral Fellows

Strengthening Cognitive Functions

Decision Making
Patricia Hershberger, PhD, APRN, BC is a CERCF postdoctoral fellow working with Dr. Penny Pierce. Her past research has focused on investigating the psychosocial experience of pregnant, donor oocyte recipient women. Aspects of her research include examining oocyte recipient women's use of donor oocytes, decision making about disclosure, selecting an oocyte donor, and disposition of cryopreserved embryos. Dr. Hershberger is also interesting in exploring health care professionals' behaviors which assist patients in their decision making and subsequent health behaviors. Of particular interest are patients' decisions which result from clinical application of advances in the genetic and reproductive sciences and are influenced by society's moral, ethical, and political perspectives.

Strengthening Cognitive Functions

Decision Making

Rebecca Lehto , PhD, RN, OCN is a CERCF postdoctoral fellow working with Dr. Karen Stein and Dr. Barbara Therrien. Her past research focuses on worry and its influence on illness perceptions and the formation of cognitive representations of illness among individuals diagnosed with suspected lung cancer. Worry has cognitive properties with important information processing consequences including directing attention, influencing perception, encoding, and recall of threatening information. Building on her earlier research, Dr. Lehto is developing a study grounded in a neural network framework that will examine the organizational structure of worry in individuals facing a new lung cancer diagnosis.

Recent Postdoctoral Fellows:

Strengthening Cognitive Functions

Decision Making
Catherine Vincent, PhD, RN is a CERCF postdoctoral fellow working with Dr. Bernadine Cimprich. Her research focuses on children's pain particularly nurses' management of children's pain. Past research examined relationships of nurses' knowledge, attitudes, analgesic administration practices, and levels of children's pain. Currently, she is studying how nurses cognitively represent children's pain and how these cognitive representations may influence behavior. Building on her prior research, she is developing a study to measure nurses' cognitive maps of children's pain and related issues to begin to understand what nurses are thinking about as they decide to medicate or not medicate children.

Strengthening Cognitive Functions

Decision Making
Frank D. Hicks, PhD, RN, is a CERCF postdoctoral fellow working with Dr. Penny Pierce. His research focuses on decision-making processes of nurses and patients. Past research examined the relationship of critical thinking and aspects of clinical decision-making among critical care nurses, and decisional influences of individuals with heart failure. Currently, in conjunction with Dr. Pierce, he is undertaking both quantitative and qualitative projects to better understand self-management decisions of individuals with chronic illnesses, particularly heart failure. The quantitative project explores the relationship of decision-making style and decision control preferences to self-management of heart failure. The qualitative project, a grounded theory of self-management decisions in heart failure, will extend and complement Dr. Pierce’s work, and assist in further developing a theory of patient decision-making upon which can be built decision support interventions.

Alterations in Brain Regulations

Hormonal Influences
Sharon Dormire, PhD, RNC, is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Center for Enhancement and Restoration of Cognitive Function. Dr. Dormire's research focuses on relationships between estrogen, hot flashes, and cognitive functioning in women at menopause. Her current work centers on investigating 1) estrogen associated changes in brain glucose as the underlying trigger for hot flashes, 2) imaging brain glucose utilization during hot flashes, and 3) examination of the cognitive consequences of brain glucose changes associated with hot flashes.

List of Prior Postdoctoral Trainees in CERCF:

Name

Mentor

Research Title

Current Position

Colling, Kathleen

Barbara Therrien

Ann Whall

Passive Behaviors in Persons With Dementia

Research Scientist
University of Michigan
School of Nursing

Davis, Alice

Barbara Therrien

Sensory Integration after Entorhinal Cortex Damage

Asst. Professor, University of Michigan School of Nursing

Dormire, Sharon

Nancy Reame

Cognitive Change and Menopausal Neuroendocrinology

Asst. Professor, The University of Texas at Austin, School of Nursing

Hicks, Frank

Penny Pierce

Decision-making in Chronic Illness

Associate Professor, Rush University, College of Nursing, Chicago, IL

Kolanowski, Ann

Ann Whall

Disturbing Behaviors in Person's with Dementia

Professor, The Pennsylvania State University

Lennie, Terry

Bonnie Metzger

Biobehavioral Mechanisms Underlying Illness-Induced Anorexia

Assoc Professor, Ohio State Univ College of Nursing

Rowsey, Pamela

Bonnie Metzger

Involvement of Tumor Necrosis Factor, Prostaglandin, and Corticotropin Releasing Factor in Exercise-induced Fever

Associate Professor, Univ of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, School of Nursing

St. Arnault, Denise

Karen Stein

Role of the Self in Social Cognitions

Asst Professor
Michigan State Univ

Son, Gwi Ryung

Ann Whall

Barbara Therrien

Care Giving Burden, Cognitive Familiarity and Use of Implicit Memory in Korean Elders with Dementia

Asst Research Scientist, University of Michigan School of Nursing